Culture Audits

We carry out ethical cultural audits and ethical bench marking within enterprises and between states and country operations. These audits identify ethical risks and focus on the organisational contextual issues that give rise to these.

Organisational culture, in all organisations, is both complex and dynamic and if not managed effectively, can mean the difference between spectacular success or mere survival or at worst, recurring media exposure of unethical behaviour by employees.

We draw on the latest research from the science of behavior ethics to identify “conduct risk.” Behavioral ethics helps to explain why people in general find it difficult to be as ethical as they would like to be. This science demonstrates how psychological factors, organizational and societal pressures, and various situational factors make it difficult for even well-intentioned people to realize their own ethical aspirations.

Clients here have included national corporations operating in Australia and Australasia as well as China. Industry experience includes construction, travel, financial services, health, transport, agribusiness and the food industry.

Typically, audits are designed to map the status quo within organisations and present an accurate profile of the entity at a specific point in time. We have frequently been retained to produce these when there is a change of leadership or when an organisation merges with another as well as when the Board discovers that an unethical pattern of behaviour has been allowed to flourish. The audit produces a profile that shows:

The formal and informal values in use within the enterprise

Key ethical and non financial risks

Employees perceptions of what is and is not working

Key reasons why issues of concern go unreported

The existing leverages and obstacles to change

A recommended plan of action to address immediate concerns

CONSTRUCTION: Audits have been conducted in Australia and throughout Asia

INSURANCE: Audits conducted Australia, New Zealand and throughout Asia

BANKS: Audits conducted in several banks. This included identifying the strengths and weakness of the two cultures when two entities merged and recommendations for a cultural merger strategy for the new entity.

CREDIT UNIONS: Mapped values of several credit unions and identified a best practice benchmark amongthe research group.